International variations in life expectancy: A spatio-temporal analysis

Life expectancy at birth has increased substantially at the global scale over recent decades, but the improvements have not been experienced equally across all countries - in large part reflecting changes in economic and social situations. To identify the spatial variations in life expectancy at birth across a large number of countries over a 33-year period, this paper provides an expository account of a developing modelling methodology for the analysis of spatio-temporal trajectories. It identifies broad patterns of change and simultaneously examines between- and within-country variation to assess the degree to which patterns of life expectancy are becoming more or less similar at national and sub-national scales.